How
To Discover Your Perfect Domain Name
How To Discover Your Perfect Domain Name
Before you set up shop on the internet, you need to find a home…
page. The domain name (www.yourname.com) becomes like your physical
address. It’s a big pain to pick up and move, so you want
to choose the right name at the outset. Here are some tips and tools
for finding your new web home.
First, let’s talk about the extension. This is the final
few letters of a domain name. .COM, .NET, and .ORG are the big three.
(Actually, those three are called Top-Level Domains or TLD) Originally,
they stood for Commercial (business), Network (like an internet
provider), and Organization (non-profit) but due to mixed use and
the real-estate value of names, those meanings have basically fallen
to the wayside. Ideally you want to find a .COM name. In the minds
of your customers, it’s the standard.
If they don’t know your website, the first thing they will
guess is yourcompany.com. Even if you have a .NET domain on your
business card, there’s a good chance of people typing in .COM
first, just by habit. It’s worth getting a different .COM
domain name rather than settling for a .NET. (Although, at about
$8 per year, I encourage you to pick up multiple variations of your
domain name)
The other domain extension you may consider is a country code.
Every country in the world has its own domain extension. I have
a .CA domain for Canada. You’ve also likely visited a .CO.UK
for a site in the United Kingdom. I don’t recommend going
outside your own country for a domain (to avoid confusion) but certainly
check out the options.
Now comes the task of finding a domain name that is available!
Chances are, the domain you really want (RyanIsCool.com) is already
gone, and you need to do some creative adaptation to find a match.
There are two tools I use in the hunt for a new domain. Hop on the
internet and go to http://www.whois.sc/ . They offer a tool called
the Name Spinner.
When I type in a couple words like “your company” it
tells me the availability of domain names using those words. (While
yourcompany.com is taken, it offers suggestions like shopyourcompany.com
and yourboxcompany.com… both of which are available) If you
want to get serious, click on the next tab for the Domain Explorer.
This offers a more advanced search, and more results.
The other tool I mentioned will save you when you hit a dead end
on finding a good domain. It’s the new version of an old book…
http://www.thesaurus.com/ ! You can find other related words to
use in your search for an available domain name, and perhaps stumble
upon a better name that you had to begin with.
About the Author Ryan Pilling is a website
designer and developer, who has begun to offer his tools and experience
in easy, bite-sized chunks at Wow
Tools For Webmasters
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